The CITES Secretariat participated in the Indonesia workshop of the Green Customs Initiative, which sought to raise awareness about trade in environmentally-sensitive materials and the role of customs officers in environmental protection and management.
30 June 2011: The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) participated in the Indonesia workshop of the Green Customs Initiative, a partnership of 11 international organizations working together to strengthen compliance and enforcement of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).
The workshop took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 21-23 June 2011, and was co-organized by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and the Indonesian Government. The workshop brought together 25 customs officers from duty stations throughout Indonesia and resource persons from three Ministries, three UN agencies and two regional centres. It sought to provide an opportunity for awareness raising about trade in environmentally-sensitive materials and the role of customs officers in environmental protection and management.
The Green Customs Initiative aims to enhance the capacity of customs and other relevant enforcement personnel to monitor and facilitate legal trade, and to detect and prevent illegal trade, in ozone depleting substances, toxic chemical products, hazardous wastes, wild species of fauna and flora, chemical weapons precursors and living-modified organisms (LMOs). [CITES News] [Website of Green Customs Initiative]